


No Princesses Were Harmed In the Making of this Tale

by WhyWhyNot



Series: There Are No Fairies In Those Tales [1]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26337919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyWhyNot/pseuds/WhyWhyNot
Summary: In which Colin Wallis is a knight, and Dragon is an actual dragon.Also, there's a tower involved.
Relationships: Dragon/Colin Wallis | Armsmaster | Defiant
Series: There Are No Fairies In Those Tales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966342
Comments: 60
Kudos: 81





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gerbilfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerbilfriend/gifts).



The worse part of the whole thing is, Colin didn’t actually do anything wrong.

Politics were never his strong point. He knows enough to go by, learned what he needed to survive, but it never came naturally to him.

He should have seen Gramme coming. He really, really should have. Everyone knows the Doll Man has had a grudge against other alchemists since the Screaming Angel cost him both his family and his body. 

He didn’t.

It’s over now. Colin did his best, and so did Michael and Hannah, but it wasn’t enough.

He wants to scream, to rage, to break something.

He doesn’t. He’s humiliated enough as it is.

He could try to run, considered it, but none of the neighboring kingdoms look kindly on alchemy, and he wouldn’t be able to continue his work on the run. If he stays, and plays his cards right, he might be able to convince his jailer to let him continue his work. 

His past feats might not have been enough to buy him his freedom, but they at least guaranteed that the cage would be gilded.

Colin finally sees the tower where he will be kept and let his head fall back against his seat.

It’s time.


	2. Chapter 2

The jailer is a dragon. A huge, fire-breathing dragon, with green and golden scales, and a tail, and wings.

Colin had never met a live dragon before. Just the dead one exposed in the University’s halls.

In any other circumstances, Colin would be delighted. Dragons talk, and so, she could answer directly many of his questions.

(They have the ability to speak most human languages, but is it innate, or learned? Do they have their own language? Languages? Do they have a society? Are the variations in color of the scales between individuals indicative of things such as abilities or status, or are they purely cosmetic? What about families? How are they structured?)

(So. Many. Questions.)

As things are, though, the dragon is Colin’s jailer. The dragon is there to watch him, to make sure he doesn’t leave the tower.

And so, Colin avoids her.

It’s a somewhat complicated endeavor, mostly because the dragon seems to enjoy looking for him, and appears to possess the ability to fit in hallways that should, by all means, be too narrow to accommodate her frame.

Earlier that day, she tracked him down to ask if he wanted to eat lunch with her. He said no.

He thinks she might have looked sad, but he’s not sure. Other human beings are hard enough to read, sometimes, let alone, well, dragons.

Colin misses his lab at the University. He made all the instruments himself, and made sure they were perfectly calibrated.

Maybe more importantly, people were generally happy to ignore his existence while he was inside it.


	3. Chapter 3

The library of the tower is surprisingly well-furnished.

It’s big, the second largest library Colin has ever seen, second only to the one the king funded in the University before Gramme started his descent into madness. Three entire floors of the tower are dedicated to it, every wall covered in shelves and books.

Does it mean that the dragon can read ? It certainly sounds like a possibility, although he can’t imagine it being practical, given her anatomy.

It could also be that she’s keeping them for their monetary value, as some of the books are worth their weigh in gold several times over, but somehow, he doubts it.

It doesn’t really matter either way.

He _loves_ that library. It’s _perfect_ for what he wants to do. 

The University never gave him the authorization to do it, but he’s not at the University anymore, and he’s already in jail anyway.

He’s going to take an empty book, and he’s going to progressively link it to other books in the library, so that he can access all their contents from that single book.

It’s going to be long. It’s going to be complicated. It’s going to be meticulous.

It’s going to be a _challenge_.

But Colin likes that kind of challenge, and he has time, and ressources.

Who’s going to stop him? The dragon?


	4. Chapter 4

The dragon does not stop him.

Instead, the dragon introduces herself as Theresa, and drags a table and an armchair inside the library, arguing that sitting on the floor is bad for his back.

“Can I help you?” she asks.

Under any other circumstances, Colin would probably have said no. But, although copying a book into another proved almost trivial, adding another without erasing the contents of the first one is significantly harder, and requires the creation of a memory space linked to the book, but not relying on the pages.

His theory is sound, he thinks, he can’t think of a reason it wouldn’t work, and yet, it doesn’t.

He’s been working on it for a month, and as much as he relishes the challenge, he’s getting frustrated.

He accepts Theresa’s help.

The problem turns out to have come from his handwriting, one of the signs looking too much like another.

They rewrite the whole thing, cutting out unnecessary parts and simplifying anything that can be, and go to work on an index system for when they add more books.

Theresa is very clever, far better than Colin is at guessing what other people would find easy to understand, and working with her is surprisingly pleasant.

If it wasn’t for his inability to leave, Colin thinks he might like it there.


	5. Chapter 5

It takes Colin and Theresa a few more months to work out the index system, mostly because they get distracted two weeks in looking for a way for the book to recognize spoken words. Still, by the time they’re done, the Book displays a list of the books it contains, and the reader can select one by tapping the title twice. Better even, if one pinches the corner of the cover and speak a word aloud, the Book will list the books using this word, with the ones where it appears most often first.

They’re very proud of themselves.

Of course, it doesn’t mean they will stop there. They need to alter the Book so as to improve the display of illustrations and illuminations.

In the meantime, Colin learned to know Theresa.

He learned that she is as kind as she is smart, dragging him outside the library and onto the garden on the roof when she thinks he went too long without going outside, waking him up in the middle of the night to watch meteors, changing the hangings of his rooms to blue and silver when she realized he prefers it to green and gold.

He learned that she figured out how to stretch her closed mouth over her fangs in an approximation of smile, and that it doesn’t come to her naturally, that it’s an affectation she puts on for his sake, that she’s happiest when her eyes are half-closed and her tail is swinging against the floor and she forgets the pretense.

He learns that she likes sunsets, and sunrises, and stars, and books filled with impossible things and stories that never did happen.

He learns she doesn’t sleep at night.

They’re in the library, and Colin is leaning back in his armchair, feet on the table, and Theresa is talking animatedly about how the quality of paper affects pictures, and whether it is possible take it in account in the Book. Her tail is softly thumping against the feet of the table, and the sun turns even her greenest scales into gold, and Colin recognizes the warm feeling in his chest.

It’s not the first time he’s been in love.


	6. Chapter 6

Of course, Gramme had to ruin everything.

It’s the middle of the night, and Colin must have heard something, a squeak of the window or a croak of the floor, because he wakes up to find the Doll Man standing over him.

The Doll Man looks like one of those wooden mannequins artists use to simulate poses, if those were life-sized and possessed to ability to sprout knives and assorted weapons out of their bodies.

Colin rolls on the side just in time for the falling axe to take his arm rather than his head.

Things are somewhat blurry after that, probably because of the blood loss, or possibly a head injury. Colin thinks he might have been thrown into a wall at some point.

There are a few flashes he remembers clearly, like the blood running down his face after Gramme got his face, or the waves of pain in his leg, or the regretful thought for the halberds he wasn’t allowed to take with him when he was imprisoned.

He also remembers trying to fight back, grabbing a paperknife and stabbing Gramme with it, with all the success one might expect against solid wood.

He remembers Theresa, alerted by the sounds of fighting, breathing fire and burning the Doll Man to cinders.

He remembers her calling his name as he collapses.


	7. Chapter 7

Colin is almost surprised to wake up. His injuries were extensive enough he knew they could have been lethal. 

His left arm is gone, and so are his right leg and eye.

At least he’s alive. Down two limbs and a major sensory organ, but alive and, since Theresa burned the Doll Man to ashes, Gramme is unlikely to change that by coming for a second round.

It’s not going to be easy. He’s going to need to learn how to compensate for his missing body parts, to learn to live without them, to learn what he can still do and what he can’t do anymore.

It’s not going to be easy.

It’s not going to be easy, but Theresa stayed by his side, promised she would do everything she could to help, swore he wouldn’t have to do it alone.

It’s not going to be easy, but Theresa told him she loves him.

It’s not going to be easy, but she wraps him in her wings and her scales are dry and soft like a snake’s, and Colin feels the warmth under her skin and can almost believe everything will be okay.


	8. Chapter 8

Things go better than Colin feared or expected.

In the beginning, Theresa modifies a chair with wheels and the ability to move on command. Colin still needs her help to change floors, or to reach things on high shelves, but it’s a start, at least, and limited autonomy is better than none at all.

Next, they work on making prostheses.

They take limbs from suits of armor and try, again and again, until they move when his mind commands it.

It’s not perfect.

It’s _far_ from perfect.

The leather straps Colin uses to keep the artificial limbs in place bites into his flesh until they leave scars, and he knows enough about the human body to be aware that, due to the weight of the metal, long term use might cause problems with his back. The range of movement is more limited, and the lack of physical sensations further impacts both his dexterity and control of his strength.

He still feels phantom pains in flesh that is no longer there.

It’s far from perfect, but Colin can walk, and run, and climb stairs and ladders. He can hold the page still as he writes, and carry heavy boxes, and cut his meat himself, and those are little things he took for granted right up until he lost them.

(On the the first anniversary of Colin’s arrival to the tower, he asks Theresa for a dance. He can barely stand on his new foot, and her body is ill-suited for human dances, and the result is closer to drunken stubbling than it is to proper dancing, but it tears a laugh out of them.) 

It’s not perfect, but they can go back to it later, try to get something better. They have time. 

For now, they’re trying to make him a new eye, and it might very well be the hardest thing either of them ever tried. Even with the Book, it’s going to take months for the research alone, months more for the calculations.

Colin relishes the challenge.


	9. Chapter 9

On the second anniversary of his arrival to the tower, Colin tries out a recipe Hannah taught him and marvels at his new hand.

He still doesn’t have a full range of sensations, but the latest version of his limbs moves more smoothly, and he can feel pressure now. He should break a lot less glasses and pens. He’s almost as dexterous as before, especially with his return to binocular vision. 

(Of course, since his new eye is made of silver, he needs to remove and clean it regularly to avoid tarnish, but it’s a mild annoyance at worse.)

Theresa loves the meal, and when they are done with it, he leans against her side and she wraps him in her wing.

She tells him she’s as much a prisonner as he is, as much jailed as jailer.

She tells him about Andrew Richter, who found her still in the egg, who raised her, who didn’t trust her.

She tells him of the intangible chains shackling her to the tower.

She tells him of the compulsion to _obey_ even if the orders are unfair, or stem from corruption.

Colin remembers the dragon bones hanging in the University’s hall, and the marble plaque proclaiming in golden letters the name of their killer.

Colin feels _rage_.

Colin is a knight, and an alchemist, and as he can make things, so he can unmake them.

Theresa may be forbidden from fighting her chains, but he isn’t.


	10. Chapter 10

Three days after Colin breaks Theresa’s chains, she leaves the tower.

He doesn’t.

(Theresa might be free, but he _isn’t_.)

She promises she will come back, and he believes her.

He believes her, but he’s lonely. It’s a foreign feeling. As alone as he was before the tower, it never used to bother him.

He distracts himself by working on the Book, and of course, it’s a lot better when Theresa is there to work with him, but research is still good, still _fascinating_ , still what he chose to dedicate his life to.

Colin wants to make more Books, linked so that adding a book to a Book will add it to all of them. He wants to make many Books, and he wants them to contain the way to make more. He wants as many people as possible to have Books. 

(Widespread, easily accessible knowledge.)

A week after her departure, Theresa comes back, and Colin tries to hide the fact that he forgot to sleep that night. He doesn’t think he’s successful.

Theresa went to the Court. Theresa went to the Court, and argued his innocence, and without Gramme to pull strings, she won.

(Colin pictures her facing the Court, the way her wings flare when she gets passionate, the way she forget to hide her fangs when she gets angry, and smiles against her shoulder.)

His sentence was overturned.

He’s free.

They both are.


	11. Chapter 11

The tower used to be both a jail and a home, and it is no longer a jail.

They won’t let it be a jail again.

The tower is just a home now, just a place they can live in, a place that is _theirs_.

There is more to the world than just home.

Colin wants to find new knowledge. More books to add to the the Books, and to start distributing them.

Theresa wants to find new people, new tastes, new stories, all the things she was kept away from, all locked up in her tower.

There are old friends Colin wants to visit.

(Home will still be there for them to go back.)

Two years and a half after being sentenced, Colin leaves the tower.

He’s not alone.


	12. Epilogue

Colin is coming to visit.

Michael got a letter from him, two days after the one telling him his sentence was overturned.

Colin’s letter says he’s bringing a fiancee with him, and Michael is somewhat confused. Colin was in jail for the last two years and half, and wasn’t allowed to have visitors. Where did he find a fiancee? 

Michael is worried for his friend, but he will reserve judgment until he meets her.

(Maybe marriage could be good for Colin, get him a bit out of his shell. The kind of love bards sing ballads about left Michael’s union years ago, but Hannah is still his closest friend, and he never regreted asking for her hand.)

\---

Colin has changed.

His face is heavily scarred, and silver shines where his right eye should be. Two of his limbs, and only those two limbs, are covered in armor, and he has lost some of the grace he used to have.

He looks happier, and Michael isn’t sure what to make of that.

Colin left his fiancee at the edge of the woods, and insists Michael and Hannah come meet her there before he brings her to their home, to avoid any _disproportionate reaction_.

(People here are used to Hannah, and Colin wouldn’t fear for one of her countrypeople. A traveler from the Far East, maybe. There has been distrust toward them in the last few years, ever since the bandit Kenta started his campaign of pillage and kidnapping.)

(Michael doesn’t believe his people would have harmed a lone woman, but humors his friend anyway.)

“Theresa, those are my friends Michael and Hannah,” says Colin. “Hannah, Michael, this is my fiancee, Theresa.”

As he raises his head to meet the eyes of the great dragon towering over him, Michael thinks this is going to be a bit more complicated than he expected.

(A lot can be said about being Colin’s friend, but it’s never boring.)


End file.
